The research group is headed by Zhao Hong, Vice President and research fellow at Beijing Academy of Social Sciences (BASS), and his research interest is regional economy. The group comprises six researchers focusing on regional economy at the BASS Institute of Economics, including associate research fellow Yang Weifeng, associate research fellow Wang Deli, associate research fellow Wang Zhong, assistant research fellow Fang Fang, assistant research fellow He Yan, and assistant research fellow Xuli Luyi.
End AbstractSince the beginning of reform and opening up, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have always attached great importance to regional economic development, made continuous efforts to improve regional development strategies, coordinate the development of four regions—eastern, central, western and northwestern regions—and introduced a series of reform measures and guidelines. In the 1980s, the central government launched the strategy of unbalanced economic development across a region that’s skewed toward the coastal areas, with a view to enhancing regional competitiveness. By means of reform and opening up, solid steps were taken to boost the institutional innovation and rapid growth of regional economy. In the 1990s, the strategy oriented toward “balanced and coordinated” development across regions was initiated. Between 2000 and 2006, the central government successively unveiled the strategy of large-scale development of the western region, the opinions on implementing the strategy of revitalizing old industrial bases in the northeast and other parts of the country, as well as the opinions on boosting the rise of the central region. Thanks to these coordinated efforts to facilitate eastern China’s trailblazing development, western China’s large-scale development, central China’s rise, and northeast China’s revitalization, the regional economy made remarkable achievements during the period.
Against the backdrop of new normal of China’s economic growth, more targeted policies for regional economic development were introduced at the 18th CPC National Congress. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by President Xi in 2013 has been a support pillar of China’s all-around economic growth, a new type of international relations, as well as a community with a shared future for mankind. The BRI was followed by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt initiative, which have jointly enriched the strategy of coordinated regional development and facilitated the formation of the existing landscape of coordinated regional development. With the strong support of national policies, China has made groundbreaking achievements in coordinated regional development and significantly improved the improper economic structure that has long plagued the country.
However, as the problem of unbalanced and inadequate regional development has not been completely resolved, there are still challenges facing the endeavor to achieve coordinated regional development. It has been made clear at the 19th CPC National Congress that “as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the principle contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved. What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life”. Therefore, China’s regional development policies will continue to focus on further boosting coordinated development across regions, in a bid to lay a solid foundation for high-quality economic development.
1 China’s Regional Economic Development over the Past 40 Years of Reform and Opening up
Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, the strategic focus for China’s regional economic development has shifted from unbalanced to balanced development across regions. Along with the high-speed regional economic growth, the widening development gap across regions has gradually narrowed and the regional economic landscape has undergone historical evolution. As scientific and technological innovation has become the major driver of regional economic growth, the potential of entrepreneurship and innovation has been unleashed, and the innovation system has been continuously improved. All these have contributed to the high-quality regional economic development in China.
1.1 Constant Improvement and Prominent Leading Role of Regional Economic Development Strategies
Following the launch of reform and opening up, to accelerate the improvement of regional economy, Deng Xiaoping showed great foresight and put forward the thoughts on “two imperatives”. It indicated that a mechanism of unbalanced development must be used to stimulate motivation, adjust interest relations, and give full play to all parties’ initiative for development. Therefore, between 1978 and 1998, China’s strategy for regional economic development centered on “eastern China’s trailblazing development”. The eastern region achieved fruitful results in economic development by seizing the opportunity of reform and opening up. In the meanwhile, the far distance from the sea made it hard for the central and western regions to enjoy shipping-based trade facilitation, widening its economic gap with the eastern region. In a bid to reverse the trend of widening gap, the central government proposed in the Ninth Five-Year Plan to narrow the regional development gap and promote coordinated regional development. It marks the beginning of China’s strategic transition to coordinated regional development, followed by continuous improvement.
1.1.1 Unbalanced Development Strategy (1978–1998)
In the early days of reform and opening up, the national economic development was underpowered and in urgent need of shifting the development model and adjusting the development strategies. Under this circumstance, the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee was convened in 1978. The session made the historic decision to resolutely shift the focus of the Party’s work to economic development. In line with the guiding principle of letting some people and some regions prosper before others, the unbalanced development strategy that prioritized the development of the eastern coastal areas was adopted. From 1979 to 1980, the central government successively approved the decision of setting up special economic zones in Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Shantou, and Xiamen, as a part of attempt for the market economy. The special economic zones were developed into a window to the outside world while exploring a development path to enrich the Chinese people. During the Sixth Five-Year Plan period, the Chinese government further adjusted the guidelines for regional economic development, making it clear that “coastal areas” should “promote” the development of the “interior”, while the interior should “help” the coastal areas develop rapidly first.1 In 1984, in order to further promote the opening up of coastal areas, the central government opened 14 port cities such as Dalian, Yingkou, and Qinhuangdao along the coast, and set up economic and technological development zones in these cities. The purpose was to bring in foreign capital and technologies, expand foreign trade, and promote the development of other regions.
During the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, the country was explicitly divided into three major regions: eastern, central, and western regions. The plan proposed to “accelerate the development of the eastern coastal areas while focusing on the development of energy and raw material industries in the west, in preparation for the further development of the western region”.2 In 1988, Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China’s reform and opening up, put forward the idea of “two imperatives”. The idea was aligned to China’s reality at the time and further promoted the implementation of the unbalanced development strategy across regions. In the 1990s, the economic development in eastern, central, and western regions presented a gradient pattern. In terms of GDP, economic structure, and degree of opening up, the eastern region largely outperformed the central region that outshined the western region. A large number of capital and labor factors flowed from the central and western regions to the eastern region, contributing to a widening gap of economic development across regions. In 1995, the ratio between GDP per capita of the eastern region and that of the western region reached 2.31:1.3 In such a context, the Ninth Five-Year Plan proposed adjusting the strategies for regional economic development toward the goal of narrowing the regional economic gap over time.
1.1.2 Coordinated Development Strategy in the Twenty-First Century (1999–2011)
The Ninth Five-Year Plan explicitly proposed “adhering to the strategy of coordinated regional development and gradually narrow the regional development gap”. It heralded the adjustment of regional development strategies since the unbalanced development strategy could no longer satisfy the needs for regional development. After a period of theoretical discussion and preliminary research, the strategy of large-scale development of the western region was introduced in 1999, which marked the beginning of the official transition from unbalanced to coordinated development strategy. On the whole, following the implementation of the coordinated development strategy, a series of specific measures have been continuously improved to promote coordinated development across regions.
Overall Strategy for the Development of Four Regions
Starting from the strategy of large-scale development of the western region proposed in 1999, China officially embarked on a path of pursuing the coordinated development strategy. This has been of great significance to the coordinated development across regions and put an end to the strategy of unbalanced development. Following the launch of the strategy, China began to vigorously support the economic and infrastructure development of the western region in 2000, entering a new era marked by the eastern region supporting the development of western region. Then the infrastructure and economic development in the western region moved into the fast lane. A large number of projects were carried out to improve the basic conditions for the regional development. In 2002, the 16th CPC National Congress officially proposed “supporting the acceleration of adjustment and transformation of old industrial bases in northeast China and other places”. In 2004, the strategy to rejuvenate the old industrial bases in northeast China was launched to motivate the ...
